New national research shows home buyers are ready to act on PFAS once rapid, accessible testing tools become available. For decades, PFAS testing has existed almost entirely within regulatory, industrial, and scientific settings. Water utilities test at the treatment-plant level, environmental agencies measure PFAS during contamination events, and laboratories rely on slow, specialised workflows. Meanwhile, the families most affected by PFAS have had almost no practical way to test their own water or soil. Traditional PFAS testing is expensive, slow, and logistically complicated – optimised for laboratories, not households or the rapid timelines of a real-estate transaction. As PFAS awareness has grown, homeowners have been left without tools that match their concerns or decision-making needs. PureTrace Labs, a startup dedicated to rapid PFAS screening and accessible testing solutions, began studying this gap. Through engagement with communities, environmental professionals, and home inspectors, the team consistently heard the same message: families want answers, but the current system makes PFAS testing too slow, too costly, or too confusing. © shutterstock/fizkes This prompted PureTrace Labs to ask a different …